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Wii U Coming to Japan December 8 In Two Configurations

Gamers got their hands on the Wii U at E3 in June. Photo: Ariel Zambelich/Wired

Nintendo will sell Wii U in two configurations in Japan, president Satoru Iwata said Thursday in a livestreamed presentation.

The new console, to be released on December 8 in Nintendo's home territory, will be sold in Premium and Basic packages. The Premium Set will retail for 31,500 yen (about $405) and include the Wii U console, the GamePad touchscreen controller, AC adapters for both pieces of hardware and an HDMI cable. It will also include a membership to "Nintendo Network Premium," which gives users discounts on their purchases of digital Wii U software. Finally, it will come with 32 GB of onboard storage for downloadable games.

The Basic Set, which will retail for 26,250 yen (about $337), will include the console and GamePad plus 8 GB of storage.

Based on Nintendo's historical price points, the Japanese 31,500 and 26,250 yen prices point to U.S. prices of about $300 and $250, assuming Nintendo of America announces similar configurations during its show tomorrow.

Two configurations would seem to be Nintendo's attempt to have a lower-priced Wii U bundle aimed at price-conscious casual gamers, while tempting the hardcore early adopters with a more expensive package.

Nintendo will not be packing a game in with either of the Wii U sets. In the U.S., the Wii was originally bundled with Wii Sports. Will Nintendo put launch title NintendoLand in the box for the American audience? We'll find out at 7 a.m. tomorrow during the Nintendo of America presentation.

Our liveblog coverage begins below.

Source: Nintendo, screen capture: Wired

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata will unveil the price, release date and other release details for the upcoming Wii U console's debut in Japan in a streaming presentation set to begin at midnight Pacific time on Thursday.

Wii U is expected to release worldwide during 2012 and come in under the $300 or 30,000 yen mark. Whether it'll be one penny under that mark, or significantly less, will be revealed soon. Wired will liveblog the presentation in this post Thursday morning.

The Japanese details should give us a clue as to when Nintendo plans to drop Wii U in the U.S. Nintendo of America will officially reveal the price, date and other information about Wii U's stateside launch in New York City later on Thursday morning, at 7 a.m. Pacific.

11:58: And here we go. Livestream starts in two minutes. Apparently it'll be 20 minutes in length. There's actually another livestream for the Japanese audience that will be broadcast simultaneously with the American press briefing, containing new Wii U software announcements. So the briefing that's about to begin will be restricted mostly to info about the hardware itself.

12:00: Starts right on time. Iwata's on screen explaining that this presentation is about the hardware, and third party software will be discussed during the next presentation later in the day.

12:01: Iwata is going over Wii U's upgrades, like HD graphics. Looks like there'll be 2 GB of RAM on board, 1 GB for games and 2 GB for the system software.

12:02: He's going over all of the things that having more RAM does for you, like faster load times, etc. Discs will be 25 GB in capacity.

12:03: Wii's energy requirements: 75 watts.

12:04: You can move your WiiWare and Virtual Console games from the Wii over to the Wii U. (We knew this already.)

12:05: Going over previously known features of the Wii U GamePad.

12:06: Talking about latency – how the GamePad interacts with the TV with no perceptible lag between the two screens.

12:07: Going over what the original Wii hardware was like, how it brought people together into the living room to play games. The idea of Wii U, Iwata says, is you can bring people together to play, or just play by yourself (using the Wii U GamePad as a personal screen).

12:10: Other possible uses of the Wii U GamePad: Have the map and other HUD data for a game on the lower screen, instead of cluttering up the TV! (Yes, yes. We've heard this a million times...)

12:11: In the history of TV videogames, Iwata says, this is the first time a home game system lets you play games even if you don't use the TV.

12:12: Talking up two launch titles, New Super Mario Bros. U and NintendoLand.

12:13: This is the first Mario game to launch with a Nintendo home console since Super Mario 64 in 1996, he says. They'll be released on the same day as Wii U in Japan. In both disc and download versions.

12:14: The Wii U Pro Controller will launch in both black and white for 5,040 yen (about $50).

12:15: Wii U stand, Wii U Game Pad stand and Wii U Game Pad charging stand will also launch. The Wii U Game Pad will include an AC Adapter and sell for about 13,000 yen (about $150).